Before
by drinktea
Summary: She was just a friend. An athletic, smart, compassionate, beautiful lady who could kick his ass and mix a killer drink at the same time, but that was beside the point. AU. ReTi.


_Disclaimer: Hooboy does FFVII belong to me? Lemme think about that. Hmm. Hmmmmmmmm. ... I've got to stop it with these snarky disclaimers._

Sakura-Angel: Alert! Alert! Cheesiness! Crap title! Written because I needed to conform and write something for the holidays GODDAMN you people and your holiday fanfiction! Slight AU warning, and uh. Got nothing against blondes. Or women. Hell, I AM one. (/useless author's note that no one reads anyway, take 407862)

**

Before

**

Ugh.

It just didn't make sense.

She'd been circling her way around him the whole damn evening.

He flipped some bangs out of his face and turned his head subtly so he could see her. He tossed a meaningful look her way, hoping she'd turn around and catch it.

No such luck.

He didn't do anything horrible, at least not anything that he could remember. But, the thought struck him, there was the extremely-good-memory-women-have factor and the overly-sensitive factor. When combined, they were a lethal combination, particularly against men's egos. He knew.

Why did he care so much anyway? Geez, she's just a friend, he told himself. An athletic, smart, compassionate, beautiful lady who could probably kick his ass and mix a killer drink at the same time, but that was beside the point.

Well, it really wasn't, but Reno wouldn't admit that to himself.

He brought his spritzer to his lips. He wondered briefly why he was drinking something non-alcoholic on a holiday, especially with a former bartender in their midst, and remembered that Tifa insisted no one was going to get drunk and crash Cloud's house. So here he was in the blonde's house at the standard annual New Year's Eve party, drinking something that would _not _make his head fuzzy. Oi.

The party went on around him, various groups of people from Cloud's work and people he'd known since childhood gathered in little circles. A burst of laughter suddenly sounded out from behind him.

Anyway. The matter at hand: the Tifa ignoring him situation. So, now that he knew his situation, he had two paths.

One: Let her cool off. Approach her after the party ended with a little I'm-sorry-for-whatever-I-did speech or something, and maybe offer to help with the clean-up.

Or two: Something fun.

Yeah, two. Definitely two.

Well. Now that that was decided, he stood up, drink still in hand, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles in his jeans, and then out of his black sleeveless top.

"Zacky boy," he walked lazily around the couch and towards his fellow prankster, seated at the counter. "Time?"

"There's a clock on the wall behind you, wise one." Zack's eyebrows were raised as he told his oh-so observant pal the location of the clock in an amusedly disappointed kind of way.

"Wise _ass_," he spit out. Reno craned his neck to glance briefly at the clock, swirling his drink in his glass at the same time. 11:48.

He sipped his drink thoughtfully and tossed another look towards Tifa, who was still busy ignoring him. 11:48... well, that didn't leave much time. He didn't want to start the new year on a bad note, especially with a woman he care-- Tifa. Erm. Hm. What to do...

"Hey," a slightly strained voice broke him out of his trance.

"Hm?" He turned around fully to look at a perturbed Cloud now seated next to Zack. An almost tragically small party hat was crushing his coif, no doubt forced on by a drunken member of his fanclub. Poor Cloud, didn't even know the women he considered friends were falling all over him.

"Ah," the blonde paused, seemingly searching for words to string together and he glanced Zack's way, as if for reassurance. It was a bit hard speaking to Reno about matters such as lov-- possible like.

Reno raised an eyebrow.

"You seem... bothered by something," he finished. His hairstyle was deteriorating, but he didn't seem to care very much.

Huh. He didn't know blondes could be so perceptive. He was about to brush Cloud off, tell him it was nothing. After all, he didn't need to tell him anything about his non-existant love life, right? But for some odd reason... "Yeah. I am."

Zack got a slightly michevious look on his face. "Tifa?"

Damn those not-blondes and their perception too. Reno put on his best poker face at his companion's last question, but to no avail.

"So it _is _her," Zack's half-lidded eyes and smirk unnerved Reno a little bit. Reno's gaze started sliding off to the side, which just happened to be where the object of his apparently apparent affections was standing. His eyes shifted away from her too quickly.

Zack noticed, and continued with his creeping-out-Reno look with renewed vigour. He suddenly placed a hand dramatically to his chest, tossed his head and leaned back in his chair. "Ah, t'is l'amour that which troubles our good Sir Reno, Squire Cloud. What must our good Sir doeth?"

"You're an idiot," Reno offered, blunt as ever.

"Ah," Zack pointed a knowing finger upwards, "This outburst only serveth us our proof, does it not, Squire Cloud?"

Cloud, absorbed with untangling the string of the party hat out of his hair, nodded distractedly.

Reno's palm hit his forehead.

"This good Sir," Zack gestured towards himself, "Thinketh thou ought to show thy hot lady over there--" he nodded towards Tifa none too subtly. He slipped out of his brief interlude into dorkyness, wanting Reno to remember what he said, "--what you really feel for her."

Reno looked at her himself and immediately wished he hadn't. She was in an extremely flattering red sweater with her hair, gleaming in the light, half up. She was nodding in an understanding way at what another girl was saying, mouth slightly open, ready to offer advice.

He turned away, hand to his head in annoyance. She just had to go and remind him that she was a nice, compassionate, understanding, and to top it all off, beautiful, person. There was definitely no denying why he cared so much that she was ignoring him.

"Frustrated?" Zack's smooth, but somehow _extremely grating_, voice came to his ears.

"No," Reno managed to smile a little sarcastic smile at his 'friend', despite his latest revalation. "In fact," a confident half-smile replaced his sarcastic one, "I've just figured out path number two." And he left a befuddled Zack and a stringy Cloud at the counter, fangirls now honing in on the blonde and his rather attractive friend.

"Everyone, get ready for the countdown!" An excited female voice yelled above all the chatter. The chatter died down, glasses stopped clinking, and the clock Zack had pointed out to Reno was ticking down the new year.

"Ten! Nine!"

Reno fought his way through the crowd gathered around the couch towards the wall where a certain brunette was standing, swirling her drink a little sadly and not chanting along with everyone else.

"Eight! Seven!"

He'd reached her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she whirled around, eyebrows shooting up, lips parting, ready to say something...

"Listen Teef, I know you're gonna chew me out for something, but you gotta know tha--"

"Reno, I don't want to hear your apologies, you..."

"Six! Five! Four!"

He'd phased everything out by now, the crowd around him, the new year coming closer by the second, the sound of her voice.

"Three! Two!"

"I didn't think you were..."

Well, it was now or never...

"One!"

"Tifa--"

"Happy New Year!"

But the shouts were tuned out and the confetti falling around them was ignored, because when the second hand touched that twelve, he cut her off by pulling her close and giving her her new year's kiss. It was the kiss that started the new year, and the kiss that started a new love.


End file.
